Women, feminism, and geek culture

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Linkspam (25 April 2014)

Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing: “Of course, we have climbed many mountains, and mastery of craft is not a luxury for writers of color, it is a necessity. But many of our gifts and challenges won’t be seen or recognized within a white cultural context. Nuances of codeswitching, racial microaggressions, the emotional reality of surviving white supremacy, self-translation – these are all layers of the non-white experience that rarely make it into mainstream literature, even when the characters look like us.”

A feminist movement among the watchmakers – WSJ.com: “Although the worlds of science and engineering are undoubtedly changing, a female master watchmaker is still as rare as seeing a tiger in the wild. It is, therefore, refreshing that the 2012 winner of the Best Watchmaker Prize at Switzerland’s grandest industry award ceremony, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, was Cartier’s head of movement creation, Carole Forestier-Kasapi.”

Ada Initiative no longer partnering with GitHub | Ada Initiative: “The sum of these events make it impossible for Ada Initiative to partner with GitHub at this time. One year ago, we partnered with GitHub to offer free private repositories to over 500 women learning to write open source software. This offer ended in December 2013, but these repositories are still in use by many of the recipients. We will work to wind down the free private repository partnership in a way that causes minimum harm to the women using them. GitHub also sponsored AdaCamp DC and AdaCamp San Francisco, our conferences to support women in open technology and culture. We will not accept future sponsorships from or partnerships with GitHub unless the situation changes significantly.”

Attacking the Stream | Dissent Magazine: “When people mourn an inability to have “meaningful conversations,” what they are saying is, “I have not learned to talk to you and don’t feel I should have to.” Katha Politt may see Twitter as a “poisonous well of viciousness and bad faith.” I experience Twitter as one of the few platforms where a man who abused me for years can be challenged openly, and where my experiences as a multiracial black immigrant child are valued internationally.”

Vox Day and the Hugos – Why We Should Just Say No. | Bibliodaze: “There’s only one way to deal with people like Day, who see themselves as above basic human decency, and that is to cut them out of the community like a tumour. Shun them, ignore them, no-platform the hell out of them. Our conventions, our fanzines, our anthologies, our community is not open to people whose racist arguments could have come straight from the mouths of slave-owners.”

How Lynn Became Our Story’s Protagonist: “I think a lot about the long, impactful single chain of people [i.e. the Wise Women] that led me to this point, but the SWORD OF DESTINY is very obviously feminist hackers. I was already the intersectional feminist of your worst nightmares but it never occurred to me that I could connect my feminism with my professional aspect, as a means of breaking into a community. So when I found out that this community existed (more specifically, when I found out about Double Union) I was extremely excited to be a part of it, AND! it turns out that I happen to fit into it fairly well.”

Post-Binary Gender in SF: Introduction | Tor.com: “It seems to me that there’s a similar process for post-binary texts: they exist, but each reader must discover them anew amid a narrative that says they are unusual, they are rare, they sit outside the standard set of stories. This, at least, has been my experience. I want to dismantle the sediment—to not only talk about post-binary texts and bring them to attention of more readers, but to do away with the default narrative.”

OKWONGA.COM » GitHub: sexism, bullying, harassment, and a curiously clean sweep.: Horvath risked her career to make these allegations, and yet their strength has remained strangely untested. This investigation does not sound particularly rigorous: in any event, it is difficult to tell, since no copy of it has been made available to the public. “There was no investigation”, tweeted Horvath. “There was a series of conversations with a “mediator” who sought to relieve GitHub of any legal responsibility.” Meanwhile, Werner-Preston has gone on to another company, issuing a defiant statement on his own website to sue anyone making “any further false claims”. As for the engineer who allegedly bullied Horvath, he was not mentioned anywhere in the statement, even though it was his behaviour that lay at the very heart of this case. Instead, he was long ago promoted to a leadership position within GitHub, something which “terrified” Horvath to the extent that she had felt compelled to leave. The picture that she painted of the tech industry for Murtaugh and his listeners was one where women, particularly those at the beginning of the careers, are forced to suffer in silence. “Why would younger women who are just entering this industry…speak out now?” asked Horvath. “We’re setting such a bad example for them because we’re saying “oh, if you don’t have, you know, [the right amount of] Twitter followers or if you don’t have a job already lined up, like, you’re completely fucked, and you have to deal with these situations and play with the boys’ club until you can create the circumstances by which you can leave.”

GitHub Sexual Harassment Investigation | The Mary Sue: “This is not a story with a happy ending. The message is chilling for women in software development: you can be destroyed at any moment. No one is coming to help you. Your harassers will say what they have to say, but the only person suffering fallout will be you.”

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2 thoughts on “What We Have Here Is A Failure To Linkspam (25 April 2014)”

We are currently soliciting work for an upcoming issue focusing on technology and its intersections with queer identities and politics. We are looking for writing that highlights the work and achievement of queer technologists, explores the influence of the queer community on technology, analyzes the impact of online spaces and politics on queer individuals and groups, and/or discusses technology for queer people. Other topics relevant to the theme will also be considered. Please submit your ideas by Monday, April 28th for consideration.

Hi, commenting in a linkspam thread, as per blog policy.
I’m looking for help and advice on the subject of anti-harassment policies in events and conventions. The Geek Feminism Wiki has been a treasure, but I’ve got a particular obstacle that doesn’t seem to be addressed there, and I’m looking for advice or for a forum that could help out.